


Lifting the Curtain: Preview

by Phoenix Holmes (dandyholmes)



Category: Original Work, Sherlock (TV), Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms, Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
Genre: Character Analysis, Gen, Meta, Nonfiction, Preview, original - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-02
Updated: 2016-12-02
Packaged: 2018-09-03 18:27:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 826
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8725513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dandyholmes/pseuds/Phoenix%20Holmes
Summary: This is a preview to the book I'm currently working on to give you an idea of what's to come. Lifting the Curtain is about the development of Holmes and Watson's relationship throughout history, from the canon by Arthur Conan Doyle to BBC Sherlock.If you have any questions about details to this book and want to learn more, here is the tumblr!





	

When I started work for this book towards the end of 2015, it began as an anger driven essay to prove to anyone who read that Sherlock Holmes, one of my favorite characters in the entire world, was and always had been a gay man. It was a 15 page paper that barely scratched the surface and was not written that wonderfully, but it was the beginning of a two year journey I did not anticipate whatsoever.

People often ask me why I chose to write a book on Sherlock Holmes. Outside of BBC’s  _ Sherlock  _ and Robert Downey Jr.’s portrayal of the famous detective, many had little to no care about who this character was. Everyday I would ask myself, “Why this story? Why this character?” forcing myself to answer. Each time it was slightly different, depending on what was on my mind or what chapter I was working on. But the core remained. I was writing this because whenever I told anyone I was writing a book about Sherlock Holmes, whatever their response may be, it was always one of instantaneous recognition.

The very name Sherlock on its own is iconic. The cultural notoriety of the odd, two-syllable title is so utterly bound to the story of the Victorian detective that you can go most places in the world and if they know nothing else, they know the name. 

Aside from the instant recognition, however, the second question I was often asked was why I thought, and cared, about this universally known character being gay. These stories have been around for over a century, wouldn’t someone have said something if Sherlock Holmes was a gay man? And that’s when it hit me just how little people know of the truth behind the character, how much of his and Watson’s identities had been written off and disguised by decades of inaccuracy and homophobia.

This project sparked both the LGBT activist in me as well as the analyst of literature and art. By combining my two passions into a work to shed light on a forever guarded story, I could answer the questions people asked me everyday. 

I would be lying to you, as a millennial and young LGBT person who enjoys Sherlock Holmes, to say that my passion for the character did not begin with Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss’ modern recreation of  _ Sherlock  _ in 2010. While I have my own qualms with their program for reasons I will delve into in this book, it is true that the community birthed from their program sparked a passion in a younger generation.  _ Sherlock  _ introduced me to the world of Holmes adaptations as well as the 60 original stories with a new lens of understanding. It was clear to me by watching their show along with dozens of other film, television, and stage productions that the iconic characters of Holmes and Watson had a loving romance that had yet to see the light of day. 

From that point onward, I was committed and compelled to get more information on this nuanced, hidden discussion as possible. It was not until I realized that no one had done an explicit romance between Holmes and Watson before that I felt the weight of just how much this message needed to be relayed. 

By examining adaptations from 1900 to 2017, there is a clear blueprint throughout the growth of the film industry viewable entirely through Holmes adaptations. You can watch history unfold through this iconic character, and it is highly probable that Holmes may be the most adapted fictional character ever on screen. So, if there is so much evidence pointing to him being gay, why don’t very many know about it?

That’s when the insidious history of homophobia peeks through the fiction we have grown so deeply to love. Due to adaptations done very early on, namely William Gillette’s stage production as well as Ellie Norwood’s silent film series, the image of Holmes morphed quite quickly into something beyond the stories themselves. Much of the character’s personality that Doyle himself created was lost in rapidly increasing numbers of interpretations. The silhouette of Sherlock Holmes was primarily created by Gillette’s wardrobe more so than Sidney Paget’s illustrations, and Watson’s role in the cases was heavily minimized due to his unique position in Holmes’ life. 

As for why this is still relevant; it is purely because people are still too afraid to bring these characters into the light. People have projected themselves onto the Holmes character for so long in a predominantly heterosexual culture that the idea of him being anything different seems appalling. It is one thing to have more LGBT characters in modern television shows and films in modern settings, but it is another to look back on characters from the past that have been staples in western entertainment for over a century. It’s time to lift the curtain on this hidden history, and shed light on this monumental romance.


End file.
